Will DNA 'nail' Vijay Palande, Simran Sood in Viveka Babajee case?

Mumbai: The Crime Branch is likely to take DNA samples from Karan Kakkar’s murder accused Vijay Palande and Simran Sood, and match it against the DNA received from supermodel Viveka Babajee’s nails. In a parallel incident, cops also salvaged half of Kakkar’s corpse from the Kumbharali Ghat in Ratnagiri. This will now be matched against DNA obtained from bloodstains found in Karan Kakkar’s bathroom.

Palande in his statement had admitted to having chopped Kakkar into pieces in his apartment at Oberoi Springs in Andheri. Failing to find bloodstains on the bathroom surface to match his claim, Crime Branch officers tore it down yesterday. “We tore down Kakkar’s bathroom and found blood stains inside the drainage pipes,” revealed a Crime Branch officer.

“Another team unearthed Kakkar’s torso in the Kumbharali Ghat in a plastic bag. His dismembered head had already been found earlier. Now, only his legs remain to be found, which we hope to recover soon. We have sent all the material to the forensic lab in Kalina, to match DNA samples and confirm that the body parts and blood belong to the same person who was killed at Oberoi Springs,” the cop said.

Samples from the two accused in Karan Kakkar case to be examined to see if they are the same as in Babajee case.

Investigations have also revealed that Kakkar had borrowed Rs 15 lakh from Palande, who, knowing that Kakkar was wealthy, had readily parted with the amount. However, as soon as he learnt that Kakkar was facing difficulties paying him back, he decided to seize Kakkar’s BMW after killing him.

“We are also planning to take DNA samples from Palande and his accomplice Simran Sood. We have found some foreign DNA under supermodel Viveka Babajee’s nails, which doesn’t match samples of either of her past boyfriends – Gautam Vora, Karthik Jobanpura or Rohit Jugraj. We suspect that Sood or Palande may have been present at the time of the model’s death,” said an officer.

Palande stood under CCTV to avoid encounter

More details have been revealed about Palande’s activities, after his sensational escape on April 11 from the Teli Gali unit of the Crime Branch. Having wriggled out of police custody with the help of his relative, Inspector Sanjay Shinde, Palande had gone to the Churchgate station, and waited at platform number 2 under a CCTV camera. This was his clever strategy to avoid being killed in an encounter.

“He was waiting for his sister to deliver his passport to him so he could flee to Bangkok. Knowing that the Crime Branch might zero in on him and kill him in an encounter, he waited in full glare of a CCTV camera, so that any violence inflicted upon him by any policeman would be recorded,” said a police officer.